Complications are not the definition of a disease. Diabetes is defined by the fact that you need an external source of insulin. What you are is a person with diabetes who has excellent control. Congratulations!!

Interest comment. I jsut visited my opthamalogist, and he said to me: so you dont' have diabetes then" I asked him to explain. "You don't have any complications, you just have hyperglycemia, too much sugar in your blood."

What a new way to look at it. I still will do everything I ussually do, inject insulin and test etc. etc. , but I liked this guys approach.

Diabetes educaotrs need to free their mind, and stop painting us all with the same brush.

Leigh

I LOVE this... and never thought of it this way either. Truth is, I too just get my insulin from elsewhere...and am complication free. And am feeling quite happy about the whole thing. Thanks!!!!

I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes six years ago at the age of 66 when I lost six pounds in weight in one week and have been totally insulin dependent since then. I was in excellent health at the time and still am, with no detectable deterioration of any organs or function at the age of 66 even though I have had a struggle to maintain good control. It would be interesting to see figures for Type 1 correlating timespan with degree of control and progession of complications.
Patricia Whitman

It's me, again, and I need to clarify a couple of things (I guess). Firstly I would NOT consider myself "well controlled". Sure, my blood sugar is in the "normal range" on rare occasions. But it fluctuates from a high near four hundred to lows in the mid teens on a regular basis. It has been doing this ever since I started measuring it myself (over thirty years ago). If "well controlled" were to be defined by keeping my body's insulin level adequate, then I might consider myself a little better controlled, but only for the last twenty five years. Keeping my insulin levels adequate is quite different from managing my blood sugar. They are related, but they are NOT the same. When there is not enough insulin attached to one's insulin receptor sites on the cell walls those cells are "starving 'to death'" and that is NOT a good thing.

But I have a feeling that my lack of complications has more to do with luck than with "good control".

And, "anonymous" is also correct in that a disease should NOT be defined by it's symptoms, but that is not always the case.

I've been a diabetic who needs insulin since 1956 at age 12. I also have no complications and my blood sugar control is not all that good, although better since 1980 with the meter. I am in the Joslin Institute 50-year medalist clinical study. First results they announced was that some 50-year insulin people have no complications, but do have a gene that those with complications didn't have. Wouldn't it be wonderful if they could manufacture and inoculate all those who need insulin so they too will have a better chance of avoiding complications? Scott should do an article on this study, unless he has and I missed it. They have studied over 2000 of us so far.

From the Diabetes Dictionary:

Diabetes Mellitus: A condition characterized by hyperglycemia resulting from the body's inability to use blood glucose for energy. In type 1 diabetes, the pancreas no longer makes insulin and therefore blood glucose cannot enter the cells to be used for energy. In type 2, either the pancreas does not make enough insulin or the body is unable to use insulin correctly.

You go figure it out. There are many long term diabetics without complications.

wouldn't it be nice if health insurance companies would look at the 'whole' person and not just the 'disease'. If you check diabetes; and especially Type 1 diabetes your application is tossed in the 'file 13'.

Anonymous, who has been "shooting drugs" since he was twelve, points out that there may be a gene that "protects us". It very well might be true. I would suspect, though, that those who eventually DO acquire complications have a gene that implicates the metabolic pathways in the body that eventually leads to complications. The complications are almost always secondary to small vessel disease which includes changes to the basement membranes of these vessels. It is, logically, much more realistic to suspect a "bad gene" causing trouble than to suggest a "good gene" that protects from problems. But I could be wrong. I've been wrong before and my wife continually reminds me that I WILL be wrong again. God bless her.

And, Anonymous beta, your statement that "there are many long term diabetics without complications" sounds good, but I have never heard that mentioned before. That is the reason that I started this whole thing in the first place -- just to see how many of "us" there really might be.

Thanks,

NT

There probably are are a lot of "Us".

I jsut like the persepctive that maybe our health will not ulimatley decline. Since going on insulin, age 33, I have seen my body go to a state of health I never had before. I'm healthier now. So to hear the rhetoric that I'm on a fast decline with tons of complications is not my experience.

Having said that, I want a cure. Insulin is a pain in the a**.

I've always told my patients that one does not die from "diabetes" unless they have DKA or prolonged hypoglycemia. But uncontrolled blood sugars can lead to vessel damage and organ failure, and death. People without diabetes can tolerate variable blood sugars, but in a narrow range. So can people with diabetes. The Joslin study so far has shown that people who have had T1 diabetes over 50 years and have no complications generally have 1)parents that lived over 70 years, 2) lead an active, healthy lifestyle, including dancing in their later years, and 3) a life long spouse or caregiver. In other words, they were genetically programmed to live a long and healthy life (if you are 50 and your parents lived to be 80, you all were somehow protected during early flu epidemics and viral disease outbreaks) and your were sociable, not lonely or depressed. It is the last one, depression that leads to not caring for oneself and a sedentary lifestyle, and a "woe is me" (I love Eeyore) attitude that keeps someone with diabetes from practicing all the day to day rituals that maintain good glucose levels. All this said, I and many of my colleagues do not think we will be seeing T2's living over 50 years with their disease, complication free. Often, for them the complication hearlds the diabetes (retinopathy, neuropathy, renal failure, heart disease). These usually come after 20-30 years with T1, if at all. Remember only 7% of our population over 70 are in nursing homes, yet many think it is inevitable for the elderly to be placed there.

I can't believe that this conversation is even being had and that I am reading it.
Be thankful that for whatever reason, you don't have any complications and enjoy life.

Congrats on being complication-free! It's a rare thing, though, from what I understand. I am 32, female, have had Type 1 for 24 years, and tightly controlled all along, but have multiple complications: retinopathy, neuropathy, gastroparesis, early renal insufficiency. Thankfully they are all in manageable stages.

whether Type 1 or Type 2, you always have a choice to maintain and promote good health within yourself, meaning not smoking, daily exercise, keeping weight within normal ranges, losing weight if you need to, taking supplements that help promote good vascular, cardiac, and cerebral health, educating yourself on the latest medical updates, keeping a positive attitude, keeping stress down, not seeing yourself as victim, taking your medication, and so forth. These options are always available, and to some extent, low-cost. I am a 2-year diagnosed Type II and my A1c was 12.6 when I found out. Now it's in the mid 5.0 range. And I will happily do everything I can to keep it there. It's not a challenge I asked for, God help me, but it's one I got handed.

Let me tell you people who may ignore symtoms, I watched my sister go down with diabetes; the dialisises, the yearning for a piece of pie, the loss of her leg then her death, I don't want to go that way, I'm going to do all I can to prevent my life going that way!! Never take this thing with a "grain of salt" and a "maybe not" attitude.

AG

I've been with this monster(Type I) since 1991. I do not belive you CAN live with this disease WITHOUT complications. If you don't have them of the body, then you must certainly have them of the mind! It is the big pink elephant who is in the room with you constantly. It requires constant attention, it is always there and will never go away, until you do!
I agree with the other poster, I'll take a cure, not some new paradigm to describe the disease.

P.S. I have no physical complications. Do you see what you are missing?

I have read al of these comments with interest. One thing that has not mentioned is the fact that some other condition(s) may be inherited, familial, thus adding to the chance of diabetic complications. This includes myself.

I've been a practicing T1 for 40 years. I was diagnosed on the Friday after Thanksgiving in 1967 at age 30. I was told that I would have 20 good years if I took care of myself and did what I was told. After that it would be all down hill and they listed all the complications that I would be facing.

Working in the biomedical field I was always around academic and pharmaceutical research labs and had the opportunity to talk to researchers about the latest findings in diabetes research. I tried to use the information when I could in my management plan and I think it has helped me.

I am not totally free of complications after 40 years as I have some peripheral neuropathy with the numbness feeling and pins and needles and tingling sensation in my feet, but there are no signs of heart problems, kidney problems or eye problems.

I also believe that there is some genetic factor that people without complications have that is not present in T1's with severe complications.

I will continue what I am doing, pumping insulin, testing my blood sugar, eating healthy, and exercising to maintain an A1C of less than 6%. I hope to get my 50 year pin from the Joslin Clinic and maybe see a Cure in my lifetime.

I've had type 1 diabetes for 10 years. I don't have any diabetes-related complications because I test frequently and adjust my insulin to match carbs. It's hard work but well worth it to avoid those complicatios. I'm proud of my record.

Do I have diabetes? Absolutely, no question about it. It's not the complications that define the disease - why would anyone eventhink so? It's the fact that if I eat anything I want without taking insulin, I AM going to get those complications. Actually if I don't take insulin, I'm going to be dead very quickly. That makes me diabetic.

I've had diabetes since 1959, as a Type 1. In 2002, I was also told that I am also now insulin resisitant - not a true Type 2 diabetes, but a form of "double diabetes." At this time, after 48 years, I do not have any of the diabetes complications, at this time. I know that sometime/anytime I could develop these complications, but I also think about if I wasn't so diligent about my diabetes care, I probably would have developed those complications long before this. Actually in many ways, having diabetes, has kept me possibly healthier, due to the way I eat, watching my weight, exercising, than if I hadn't had diabetes.
Do I like having diabetes? NO! But since I do have it, I'm thankful that I have been able to control it, instead of letting it control me!

I'm also diabetic since 1963 when I was 9 years old and have no diabetes-relevant complications. I used and use natural pork insulin only.